How Millennials Kill Everything New

How do millennials cold-bloodedly kill so many products and services? The drastic and rapid change in their behavior and preferences does that. It changes so quickly that it renders a product or a service no longer relevant and outdated.

Let’s take golf as an easy example. This elite sport, which was originated in the 15th century, was a darling among Baby Boomers and X-Generations, but such isn’t the case with millennials. The world trend shows a major drop in the viewership of golf tournaments in the past decade. Last year, the number of viewership plummeted by 75%. It comes as no surprise that millennials’ share of this viewership is as little as 5%. And as the population of the older generations decreases, the more unpopular golf becomes. Soon enough, it will be no longer in existence.

Today, this situation applies to department stores. Last year, we witnessed the slow declining in the number of department stores around the globe, including in Indonesia such as Matahari, Ramayana, Lotus, etc. The root cause is, again, the shift in millennials behavior. First, they begin shopping online. Second, their consumption starts to veer away from goods to experiences and leisure. Visiting a mall is no longer intended for shopping purposes--they do it to hang out, window-shop, and dine out, to look for stress-relieving experience.

In similar fashion, property market has been sluggish in recent years. Instead of regarding this plateau as a part of the usual cycle of “bullish-bearish” which will move upwards by itself, market players begin to suspect that this is a “continuous bearish”, an impact of the formation of “new normal” in our slow economy. We might want to take into consideration what role do millennials play in this scenario. First, they start postponing marriages, which delays the arrival of children and then leads to deferring house purchase. Some of millennials also tend to live at their parents’ house, or share a living space with their sibling. As a result, a new house is not necessary. For the already married ones, the minimalist lifestyle that they have adopted makes them prefer a smaller house. These could be the reasons behind the stunted growth of property market size.

What thing does this behavioral shift in millenials target to “kill” up next? You’re right, work places. For Baby Boomers and X-Generations, working from nine to five is a common thing. For millennials? Not so much. Millennials begin to request flexibility in working hours. They are now demanding new working patterns such as “remote working”, “flexible working schedule”, or “flexi job”. Survey conducted by Deloitte shows that 92% millennials put working flexibility as their first priority. Trend towards “freelancing”, “digital nomad”, or “gig economy” is becoming popular. To work is not equal to being anchored to one place: they want to work three months in Ubud, four months in Raja Ampat, then next in Chiang May. In millennials-speak: a ”workcation”.

How will this affect the offices or agencies which still have a baby boomers’ working style in place? It will be left behind by its millennials-dominated labor force. It will be obsolete.

Millennials will “kill” everything.

Have we altered the way we run our business in order to suit millennials’ way of life?

Here are some interesting predictions:

1. Automobile repair shop will disappear.

2. Gasoline-fueled cars have 20.000 parts. Meanwhile, electric cars only have 20 parts. They come with a whole life insurance and can only be fixed by authorized dealers. It takes no longer than 10 minutes to remove and replace parts of electric cars.

3. Local automobile repair shop which still exists will employ robots.

4. If there is a malfunction in your vehicles, you will be alerted by a blinking red light. You will go to a garage resembling a car wash, and you will grab some coffee while waiting for your car to be fixed.

5. Gas station will no longer exist.

6. Parking meter will be replaced by an “electricity dispenser". Many companies will set up electricity to-up stations.

7. Vehicle manufacturers will start allocating more money to electric car production.

8. Coal industry will be wiped out. And so will oil and gas company. Say goodbye to OPEC.

9. Houses will generate and save electricity at day, and start selling it to Grid. Grid will save and distribute it to companies and industries.

10. Toddlers born today will only see private cars in museum.

11. In 1998, Kodak had more than 170.000 employees and sold 85% film rolls all over the world. Just in a few years, they lost their business models and went bankrupt. Who could have seen it coming?

12. What happened to Kodak and Polaroid will happen to most industries in the next 5-10 years and many cannot see it.

13. Did people in 1998 expect that they would no longer use film to take pictures? With smartphones today, who still uses camera film?

14. Digital camera was invented back in 1975. The first prototype only had 10.000 pixels. But it followed the law of Moore: technology grows exponentially. What once was a disappointing product became a mainstream in a short period.

15. It recurred (faster) with artificial intelligence. It’s now implemented in health care, education, agriculture, 3D printing, electric vehicles and day-to-day jobs.

16. Say hello to Industry Revolution 4.0.

17. Software has and will wreak more havoc with a lot of industries in the coming decade.

18. Uber (like Gojek in Indonesia) is a mere platform. They don’t own cars but they are the biggest taxi company in the world! Go ask taxi drivers if they saw it coming.

19. Airbnb is now the most significant accommodation service in the world, despite not having any property. Ask Hilton Hotel if they predicted it before.

20. This year, computer beats the best gamer in the world. Artificial intelligence is developing faster than expected.

21. In USA, young lawyers are at the risk of losing their job. Thanks to Watson IBM, you could get free legal advice on count of seconds, with 90% accuracy (compared to only 70% when it’s given by human lawyers). So, if you are studying law, stop right now. The need for lawyers will decrease by 90%.

22. Watson has also helped medical practitioner diagnose cancer 4 times more accurately than before.

23. Facebook now has a facial recognition software that works better than human. In 2030, computers will be smarter than any humans.

24. In 2018, the first driver-less car appeared for the first time. Within the next two years, the whole industry will be overthrown. You are not going to want to buy a car because you will be able to order it by phone, call it to your place, then make it drive you to your destination. You won’t have to worry about where to park, you’ll just need to pay for the distance and remain productive during the drive. The kids won’t have to get a driving license.

25. In turn, it will bring change to our cities. Since we need 95% less car, we could turn parking lots into city parks.

26. About 1,2 million of people die in a car crash every year, including those occurring because of drunken driver. For every 60.000 miles, we have 1 accident. With the driver-less cars, the ratio will drop, and thousands of lives will be saved.

27. Most car companies will undoubtedly suffer from bankruptcy. Traditional ones only use evolutionary approach and try to make better cars. While tech companies like Tesla, Apple, Google use revolutionary approach and try to build computer above the wheels.

28. Look what Volvo has done: no more internal combustion engine in their vehicles starting from 2019. They are moving to electric or hybrid machine.

29. Technical experts in Volkswagen and Audi fear Tesla, as they are supposed to. A few years ago, electric cars companies weren’t there but now they are.

30. Insurance companies will also take the blows; without accidents, cost incurred will be repressed. Insurance business models will be gone.

31. Real-estate will morph as well. If people could travel to work from home everyday, they will seek to live farther away from the city and try to find a more affordable house.

32. It will be less noisy when electric cars become a mainstream in 2030.

33. Air pollution will also be reduced.

34. Electricity will become cheaper.

35. Solar power production has experienced an exponential curve in its growth during the last 30 years. You can see the outcome of it today.

36. Fossil energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to Grid, to prevent competitors who offer solar-powered electricity installations.

37. The price of “Tricorder X” are going to be announced this year. This machine comes with an application that works on your phone. It could scan your retina, take sample of your blood and your breathing. Then it will analyze 54 bio-markers that will identify almost all kinds of illness.

Welcome to the future.